In The Garden Update: My First Harvest!

Wohoo! Our first harvest from the garden: 12 green beans and 3 zucchini squash. OK, so not exactly a huge harvest, but it was a start. There are still a dozen or more growing. There's also a bunch of cucumbers and some ears of corn showing. Can't wait!

Can I Quote You On That? #2

After over 40 years living in Orlando, I finally made it down to Key West, Florida. Celebrating our 1 year anniversary, my wife and I took a drive down south. I've heard the stories of all the chickens running wild through the streets and yep they were there. I saw this one rooster where the colors really caught my eye. Anyway, so in your best Foghorn Leghorn impersonation, what's this rooster saying to ya?

A Tree That Sits?

Back in 2008, my wife and I were Geocaching in Lake Rita Blanca State Park near Dalhart, TX. As we were rounding the corner along the hiking trail, I saw this tree and the first thing that came to my mind was that the tree was sitting. It's as though the tree was growing up along side this 6 foot drop, then it appears to sit upon the ledge before continuing back upright like a tree is supposed to be. Kinda looks like it has legs too!

A Lasting Impression?

As some of you know I like Geocaching. And for those who don't know what Geocaching is, it's like a world wide scavenger hunt using a hand-held GPS unit, trying to find "caches" hidden all over by other cachers.

Anyways, sometimes they are hidden in various cemeteries usually to bring you to a historic figure or event. Sometimes they, like this one, just bring you to an unusual headstone located at the Lexington Cementery in Lexington, Ohio. If that's what you want to call this one. Sometimes you just have to wonder: "What were they thinking?"

So what goes through your mind when you see this? What are some of the strange headstones you've seen?

Slightly Used Fairly New Riding Mower For Sale -- CHEAP!!

While passing through Alabama back in 2006, I saw this riding mower for sale and just had to pull over and take a picture. Talking to the owner about it, he said the Cub Cadet lawn tractor was less than a year old. He had only used it twice! On the second time, the fuel started leaking and it caught fire. He barely had enough time to get off and it was engulfed in flames. After battling it out with the factory, they refused to warranty it saying that he was responsible. So, he thought he'd protest and set it out in his front yard and tell his story. Then went and bought a John Deere instead. So, ya wanna buy a cheap mower?

Geocaching At The 20' Recycled Bird

Passing through Las Cruces, New Mexico, I saw this huge statue at the rest area along I-10 overlooking the city. An even closer look revealed a more interesting thing about this big bird. This 20 ft roadrunner was constructed of trash collected from the local dump. Can you name some of the items this bird is made of?

Oh, and this was one of another Geocaching sites. Can you also guess where the hidden cash was located? Lets just say I looked kinda strange retrieving the cache!

Don't Forget To Look Behind You (Part 2)

Another lesson for not forgetting to look behind you while photographing sunsets. I was taking pictures up in Illinois one year and looking around saw these 2 birds enjoying the same sunset I was watching. A quick turn to the side and they became the focus of my subject. So don't stare into the sun too long. Look around! You never know what you may find.

Holy Batcave, That's A Tight Squeeze!

These next set of photos go back a few years to my early truck driving days. It was long after my training was over and they sent me off solo on my own, that I had to go into the old salt mines in Missouri. These mines were converted into warehouses which actually saves on air conditioning costs. But it sure made for some tricky maneuvering with this long-nosed Peterbuilt and a 53' trailer! I was driving through there slowly expecting the Batmobile to come flying around the corner at any time!

 

Here I am backed into the loading dock after about 30 minutes of trying!

Looking back the way I came.

Another truck passing by.

Don't Forget To Look Behind You!

Today's photo comes from 2006 while I was in Wyoming. My sons and I were out Geocaching by the Grand Tetons along Hwy 26 near a little place called Brooks Lake. It was very beautiful up in that area and we had a fun time 4-wheeling up in the mountains. On the way back to our campsite, we had a great view of the sun setting behind the Grand Tetons. Sorry to say though that those pics didn't come out too well. I had forgotten my tripod and well...

Anyway, I had remembered a book that I had read about taking photos of sunsets. The author made the statement that very few photographers ever look behind them when faced with a sunset. And I must admit that I'm guilty of that most of the time! But on this occasion, I remembered! YEAH! Because the view behind me may have been even more spectacular than the sunset. I was still without the tripod and it's not as sharp as I wanted it, but here's the best I got:

So the next time you taking a picture of that sunset, don't forget to look behind you!

Geocaching at Lake Apopka Restoration Reserve

So I'm out Geocaching yesterday after work in the Lake Apopka Restoration Reserve on the north east corner of Lake Apopka. There's a 5.8 mile loop trail and I was on my bike to make the round a little quicker, so I thought! From the parking area, I head south along the loop to the first cache.

The trail goes down between swamp on each side. It didn't take long before I encountered a big SPLASH! A large alligator was sunning on the bank and quickly leaped back into the water just 10-15 feet away from me. Holy Gators Batman!! No instead of watching all the beautiful Egrets and Blue Herons, I'm looking out for gators!

I find the first cache and continued south before rounding the corner eastward towards the next geocache site. I get within 600 feet of the cache and encounter my first gator blocking to trail. This one must have been 10-12 feet in length! It was just sitting there watching me and contemplating dinner! I tossed a few rocks to see if I could get him to go into the water. No luck.

OK, so now I must backtrack and ride the 5.8 miles around just to get to the other side of him! So off I went.

On the other side of the loop I encountered yet another rather large gator sunning across the trail. I stopped and took a couple of photos (wishing I had my 300mm telephoto lens with me instead!). Just as put the cap back on the lens and strapped the Nikon back over my shoulder, he stands up, whips around, and runs into the water. While I missed the shot, he did clear the path for me to continue by!

After finding the last cache on my list, I continued back to where the first gator was hoping he was gone by now. From that point it was a shorter ride back to the Jeep than to turn around again. Unfortunately, he was still there.This time I decided just to make a lot of noise and continue to ride towards it slowly. It worked! It soon stood up and walked across into the water. My path was once again clear and I rode back to the Jeep.

I'll be back soon with my bigger lens! Anybody else want to go with me? Preferably somebody slower! Just kidding...